After sending the previous post, I got ready to go exploring. Down to Bhagsunag, in short Bhagsu, the closest village.
There is a steep walk down to the village from the guest house. Taking care not to trip prevented me from looking more closely at all the shops and stalls next to the road. I should have, than finding the way back would have been easier 😛
The village was OK. There are a lot of things to see and buy. As usual, it’s all overwhelming and chaotic. You need some time to make sense of it and get a feeling of where to go. There are a lot of different kinds of shops and enterprises. From leather and jewelery over kids toys to cafés and restaurants down to travel agencies. And of course places for tattoo’s, massage, yoga classes, meditations, …
Luckily, I quickly found signs to the waterfall. This is one of the attractions of Bhagsu.
Before getting there, I passed the swimming pool. There were some people swimming, but most were looking at the others. After a while, I got out of the city and on a road to the waterfall. There were several people going there. In the distance, you could already see it.
After walking some 10-15 minutes, I reached it. Well, it was longer because I left the track (too crowded for me) and did the last part following the river itself. It was fun climbing over the rocks and looking at the nature. I saw a pool with tadpoles. There are very pretty birds here as well. I tried to catch a picture of one with a nice red tail. Hopefully you can see it.
I also took time to build a rock tower. It turned out very nice, even if I say so 🙂
When you get to the waterfall, you can take following picture. It looks very peaceful and quiet.
But the reality was quite different. A lot of people were there taking pictures standing in the water.
So I went higher up to Siva Café. I took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up at Peace Café. There I met some Punjabi. Hello James and Aman. It was great chatting to you guys. Give my blessings to your wifes and your daughters.
Of I went again to Siva Café. By the way, they are pretty inventive with their names. I even saw a No Name Café on my wanderings.
Finally at Siva Café, it was a lot more quiet. But I saw a track on the other side of the river so didn’t stop and immediately went further up. There was something up there I had to see, my heart told me. Some 15 minute climb later, I had a wonderful view over the valley. Unfortunately, the pictures don’t even convey half of the beauty and vastness of the view.
Then it was time to go back down. Reaching Bhagsu was no problem, just go straight. But in the center, I took some wrong turns because, as said before, I didn’t pay enough attention going down. Luckily just enough to get a feeling if I went the right direction. After some wandering, I finally found the road up again.
I remembered somebody talking about Namasthe Café. It’s close to the guest house, so it would make it easier to finish the trip after eating a bit.
When I came there, I had to make a small mental leap. There was a very colorful room with carpets on the floor plus some raised areas. This was their dining room. I ordered a thali with chapati and lassi. Even though the proprietor was quite as colorful as his room, the food was nice. He also had some nice mantra music going on. So that was OK.
Even better was that a German guy dropped by. He rented a room there and we started chatting. One thing led to another so tomorrow Alex and I will go the McLeodganj and see if we can do some volunteer work for the Tibetan community. Also, we will see about going to Triund peak together on Thursday when it’s supposed to be good weather (today was cloudy and the 20 degrees I expected. The night was actually too chilly to sit outside in T-shirt). He already did it and says the view is very nice but it’s pretty crowded. It was a family outing to his words. At least I’m warned now 🙂
